Taking as a point of departure a comment by the American poet Robert Hass, that poetry which has ‘gotten into the blood’ becomes autobiography, Poetry in the Blood poses one question to more than a score of practising poets: ‘What poetry have you carried with you for so long that it has entered your bloodstream?’ Some of the essay-length answers illustrate the extent to which poetry influences our way of seeing the world; others reveal how excellence energises the creative spirit. All testify to the power of the poem.